InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, announced that together with Source Technologies, a world-class provider of magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) and secure printing solutions, it has launched the InfoPrint 1832 MICR and InfoPrint 1822 MICR for use in check and secure-document creation applications. This announcement reinforces InfoPrint Solutions' ongoing relationship with Source Technologies as the exclusive distributor of its MICR-enabled workgroup printers. These latest models offer robust performance along with Source Technologies' exceptional secure print functionality, adding continual depth and versatility to the InfoPrint Solutions workgroup family.

The InfoPrint 1822 MICR offers the best value in secure printing for negotiable or secure document creation with the highest levels of security. Perfect for any space-conscious environment, this robust printer, with a small footprint, has a 300-sheet input capacity and duplex as a standard feature. The printer enables print speeds of up to 40 pages per minute (ppm), a time to first page as fast as 6.5 seconds and 64MB of standard memory.

The InfoPrint 1832 MICR is ideal for facilities that require high-throughput performance and superior security without the expense of a higher end solution. Boasting print speeds up to 45 ppm, the InfoPrint 1832 offers optional internal duplex, a 500 MHz processor and 128MB of memory as standard. It also features a 250-sheet standard input drawer with 100-page multi-purpose feeder and a time to first page as fast as 7.5 seconds.

"Our continued collaboration with InfoPrint Solutions adds depth to our existing secure printer solutions set and ultimately offers our customers a wider range of secure printing tools," said Sarah Burkhart, Director of Marketing for Source Technologies. "Source Technologies offers check- or secure-document printing solutions to an expansive user base. These innovative printers from InfoPrint Solutions combat fraud and represent an important instrument in any company's data security arsenal. The InfoPrint 1822 MICR and InfoPrint 1832 MICR offer more robust performance than their predecessors while incorporating more environmental conservation features."

MICR line characters, printed using special fonts, must be printed with MICR toner in order to comply with check processing standards. It is the combination of toner and fonts that create the machine readable MICR line. MICR toner is the element which adds the magnetic readability to each character, allowing for high-speed check clearing.

The United States still relies heavily on checks as a payment method; according to the most recent Federal Reserve study, approximately 30.5 billion checks are paid each year in the United States. This technology provides banks the ability to use computer technology to process checks at a rate faster than previous methods. It also includes guidelines to help ensure production of consistently readable MICR characters.

"These new printers enable our customers to automate their disbursement process and decrease the associated risks and costs," said Paul Preo, Vice President, Distributed Solutions for InfoPrint Solutions. "InfoPrint Solutions is proud to extend our collaboration with Source Technologies to provide these secure MICR printers as replacements for non-secure solutions such as a standard printer with MICR toner, dot matrix printer or typewriter. As exclusive distributor of these secure printer models, we are confident Source Technologies will provide our customers with solutions customized to their needs."

About Source Technologies Source Technologies' self-service kiosks and secure print solutions empower businesses to automate a wide-range of processes including complex banking transactions, customer-facing retail and hospitality interactions, and the secure printing of sensitive information and negotiable documents. For more information, visit www.sourcetech.com.

About InfoPrint Solutions InfoPrint Solutions Company, a Ricoh company, is a leading provider of digital output solutions. It is built on IBM's 50 years in the production print space and Ricoh's excellence in technology innovation. Go to www.infoprint.com for more information.